Sometimes I need to shred a block of a soft cheese such as mozzarella, or cheddar. When I use my grater, the cheese starts to get kind of chunky as I'm grating it. I end up wasting a lot of cheese when I try to grate it.

It never happens when I grate harder cheeses like peccorino.

Is there a way to grate softer cheeses without ending up with big pieces of wasted chunks? Is there a particular grater that works better for softer cheeses?

6 Answers
6

I usually freeze mozzarella and then grate it (longer the better, unless you are in a hurry, then 20 minutes or so works OK). This works very well. Other soft cheeses, such as those meant to be eaten at room temp, brie, for example, I wouldn't freeze... Of course, I don't think many of us are grating brie anyway.

Yeah, what's probably happening is that the cheese is getting warm from the processing and from being out at room temperature. So the grater ends up stretching it instead of cutting through it. Freezing or deep-chilling it will extend its working life.
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GalacticCowboyJul 13 '10 at 17:31

Great! I never even thought about doing that. Thanks!
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Jacob RJul 13 '10 at 17:33

Freezing cheese will force out moisture within the cheese, ruining some of its desirable characteristics. This may not matter for cheap cheese, but that $4 ball of today's fresh mozz might give you pause. You could still use the freezer though. Putting a soft cheese in the freezer for several minutes prior to serving will firm it up enough to grate it more cleanly.

Another option is to grate it into larger chunks. Use the coarsest grater for the softest cheeses.

Yah, I agree with this point 100%. There is a fine balance between ruining nice cheese and driving yourself bonkers grating properly ;--) +1 for trying to protect cheese integrity.
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nicorelliusJul 13 '12 at 21:11

Use a box grater instead of a mandolin. Because the mandolin has a larger blade, it's placing stress on a much larger piece of the cheese resulting in large breaks. If you use a box grater, you get more localized pressure on the cheese for shorter periods of time. You'll still get some breaking with mozzarella or cheddar, but not nearly as much. Any breaks in the cheese will also be much closer in size to the final shredded product than with a mandolin grater.